


Beginnings

by VigilantSycamore



Series: That's how you know it's meant to be [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: BatCat Week 2018, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 06:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16529147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VigilantSycamore/pseuds/VigilantSycamore
Summary: Bruce and Selina first met at the Iceberg Casino, on the 24th of June. He was there to find evidence against Cobblepot, she was there to steal a diamond.That was only the start of their story.





	Beginnings

They first met in the Iceberg Casino, on June 24th.

Bruce was there to bug Cobblepot’s office. He’d suspected for a while that the Mayor had ties to the Falcone Crime Family, or at least their consigliere, Tony Zucco. He just needed proof.

The intel he’d gathered as Matches Malone told him Zucco would be meeting Cobblepot here on June 26th, so he was planting the bugs two days in advance. He’d come back on June 27th to retrieve them and go over everything they recorded.

He got into the Iceberg by abseiling down the side of the building, picking the lock on the window to Cobblepot’s office, and climbing in. Then he went around the office, hiding the various surveillance devices in his belt in strategic locations: one under Cobblepot’s desk, another under his chair, one behind a painting mounted on the wall, and one under a bookshelf.

Selina was there because she knew Cobblepot was corrupt, but wasn’t interested in proving it. No, what she was after was revenge and a diamond.

She’d been in the Iceberg before, disguised as Elva Barr, to make sure she had a way in and out when she stole the Magellan Star, the centrepiece of Cobblepot’s collection. As much fun as it would be to get in through the skylight, it was much easier to just pick the lock on the front door, then step over the laser beam and right into the lobby.

Getting the Magellan Star off the display was more difficult – she’d done her research, and the security firm Cobblepot had hired had installed a ring of pressure sensors under the 600-carat diamond. Fortunately, there was a way around that: under the display was a keypad with a four-digit passcode to turn the sensors off for ten seconds, in case the Star needed to be temporarily removed.

Bruce wasn’t done yet. He had a few bugs left to hide, not in Cobblepot’s office but outside – by the bar, and under some of the tables. He picked the lock on the door and stepped onto the walkway outside, then made his way down to the bar.

Meanwhile, Selina picked the lock on the hatch that hid the keypad, then checked the keypad for prints. The four keys pressed most often were the ones that made up the passcode, and in this case they were 1, 6, 7, and 9.

That meant there were 24 possible combinations. She probably had between three and five chances before a wrong guess tripped the alarm. Fortunately, she already knew that the client chose the passcode to make sure it was something they could remember. Statistically speaking, that was probably a date or a year. Cobblepot had been born in 1967.

She typed that combination. The screen on the keypad flashed twice, then went blank. Now she had ten seconds to pull this off.

Bruce had finished with the bar and had two bugs left. He wasn’t planning to bug the lobby, but he had the chance so he might as well take it. And that was when he saw a woman in a cat costume stealing a diamond.

Well, that was unexpected. Bruce stepped towards her quietly – the pads under his boots absorbed the sound of his footfalls.

He was pretty sure he’d heard of her – there had been a few mysterious burglaries in the past year that all required a similarly high skill level, and in a few cases CCTV footage showed that the culprit was wearing a cat costume. But this was the first time Bruce saw her in person.

She was wearing a catsuit made of dark purple leather, a black belt with compartments along it, black elbow-length gloves and thigh high boots, and a purple cowl with cat ears. At least they had the same fashion sense. There was a whip holster at her waist – he’d have to watch out for that - and a black bag slung across her back with something inside it.

Selina slipped off her black backpack, took out the 120-gram weight in the shape of the diamond, took the Magellan Star off the podium and stuffed it into her bag. Then she placed the weight on the podium instead.

She smirked to herself. That was easier than she’d expected it to be.

“I don’t think that belongs to you,” a gravelly voice said.

Catwoman stopped in her tracks and turned around to see the vigilante she’d heard so much about these last few weeks glaring at her.

She had to admit, she’d been curious when she heard stories of a giant bat that appeared out of nowhere and attacked criminals. Some of the stories were too ridiculous to believe, but others seemed plausible.

Now that she’d turned around, Bruce could see that she was wearing goggles with tinted green lenses. Her mask left the lower half of her face exposed and the mask’s eyeholes were significantly larger than his own – probably a way to improve visibility. Her gloves had rings on her fingertips with needle-like claws embedded in them.

Looking at him now, Selina could tell he wasn’t actually a giant bat, only dressed up as one. His costume was a grey uniform with a camouflage pattern on it – it looked almost military. A cape that was a darker shade of grey but had the same camouflage pattern was draped over his shoulders and ran down his sides, hiding most of his body from view. The edge of that cape was cut to look like a bat’s wings. He was wearing a cowl that matched his cape – and were those _bat ears_ on it? Well, at least he had good fashion sense - and his eyes were hidden by dark lenses. His face was almost completely covered, except for his mouth and chin. On his chest, a black badge shaped like a bat stood out from the grey pattern. At his waist, there was a dark grey utility belt, and he was wearing dark grey gauntlets and combat boots. Some sort of fin jutted out of the side of each gauntlet.

He was already in a combat stance, with his left leg in front, his right leg behind him, and both forearms raised in front of his head.

Well, if it was a fight he wanted…

“Maybe you’re right,” Selina said, circling the vigilante as she reached towards her whip. “What are _you_ going to do about it?”

“Well, usually the way this goes is that I fight the thief for a while, tie them up, call the police, and replace the diamonds.” They were circling each other now.

Selina laughed. “There’s only one way I’m letting someone tie me up, and it’s not this one.” She winked at him.

Batman’s lip twitched.

“You’re Batman, right?” she asked.

“Either that or I wore the wrong costume.”

“I’ve heard of you. You should be helping me.”

“Care to elaborate on that? Because last time I checked, I was a vigilante and you were a thief. A famous thief if I’m not mistaken.”

“My reputation precedes me,” Selina smirked. “And you should be helping me because I’m stealing from Cobblepot - and I’m guessing you know our dear mayor is crooked.”

“He is,” Batman agreed. “But that’s not a reason to steal from him. It’s better to expose him and bring him to justice.”

“I think we both know that won’t work. And even if you do somehow manage to get Cobblepot behind bars, it won’t fix the damage he’s already done.”

“Is that what you’re stealing the diamond for?”

“If I say yes, will you let me go on my merry way?”

“I doubt it.”

She shrugged. “It was worth a shot.” She yanked her whip out of its holster and swung it in an arc. Batman ducked back to avoid the lash. The whip carried on, knocking the weight off the display before arcing around and hitting a window behind Catwoman. Cracks appeared across the stained glass, while an alarm started blaring.

Selina kicked at the cracked window, shattering the glass, and leapt through the window into the street outside. Shutters came crashing down over all the windows and doors, and Batman started trying to lift the one blocking the broken window.

Catwoman rolled her eyes. “Don’t bother, that shutter is being held in place by a powerful magnet,” she said. “Sorry Batman, but I couldn’t have you catching up to me.”

Batman took out a small black box from his utility belt. “Magnets, huh?”

“Aaand that’s my cue to leave,” Selina said. She ran towards a nearby fire escape and started to climb it while Batman set off the EMP.

Bruce managed to lift the shutter out of the way and climb out, but by then Catwoman was already gone.

The comm under his cowl buzzed.

“ _Master Bruce,_ ” Alfred said, “ _what just happened?_ ”

“I just met Catwoman,” Bruce replied.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a note on the timeline: while the Batman Saga has an ambiguous time period that's basically just "today, give or take twenty years," That's how you know it's meant to be has a more fixed timeline: Bruce and Selina got married in 2018. The first time they met, which is what you see here, happened in 2001, a year after Bruce became Batman and two years after Selina became Catwoman. They were both born in 1978.  
> There's more details to this that I might elaborate on in later stories in this series, but this story is just the first time they met so I've focused only on the stuff relevant to their meeting.


End file.
